Sam Allardyce made a manager's most bittersweet journey, a return to the club that had sacked him. Publicly, in the Sky studio, he was magnanimous, congratulating Blackburn Rovers, who had fired him in bizarre and unsatisfactory circumstances six weeks ago, for a victory that took them into seventh place, where furtive, moonlit thoughts of European football begin.

Allardyce would have to be a very big man indeed for those words to have been a fair reflection of his thoughts. Football is not a generous game; Brian Clough never quite "forgave" Dave Mackay for leading what the great man considered "his" Derby side to the championship in 1975. And Clough had resigned.

Allardyce would have seen the adverts for Venky's, the Indian poultry firm that fired him, and heard the ovation for Steve Kean, his one-time deputy, who is spending the money the club's Indian owners had promised him. He would not have been human had he not wondered what he might have achieved had he been allowed to remain.

There was an isolated chant of "Big Sam give us a wave" and the odd song about the man who built the modern Blackburn, Jack Walker but with every victory the coup against Allardyce is fading from Ewood's collective memory.

Kean's profile may be low, he may park his BMW 3-series next to Míchel Salgado's Aston Martin and El-Hadji Diouf's chrome‑plated Mercedes at Blackburn's training ground but he is an intelligent and inventive coach. Last Monday, he had made a 20-hour flight to Mumbai to be confirmed as Blackburn manager for the next two and a half years and this was the first fruits of his long-term arrangement with the Rao brothers.

There were 22 nationalities on the Ewood Park pitch, which counts as a Premier League record, and none would have endured a worse afternoon than Gabriel Tamas, born in Brasov, Romania. West Bromwich Albion had more than held their own in the opening 40 minutes but when David Dunn delivered a cross on the run, Tamas, under slight pressure from Nikola Kalinic (born in Solin, Croatia) headed firmly past his own keeper, Boaz Myhill, born in Modesto, California.

His manager, Roberto di Matteo, who has now lost six of his past seven matches, was scathing about Tamas's contribution, saying he had "mistimed his jump and then headed the wrong way". Di Matteo then saw the response to his half‑time team-talk was for Tamas to allow Junior Hoilett (born in Brampton, Ontario) to glide past him and then deliver a vicious, swerving and entirely unsaveable shot into the roof of Myhill's net. As a first Premier League goal it was not bad.

"We told them to lock up certain areas of the pitch and they just did not do that," said Di Matteo, whose team are now sliding towards the kind of areas most expected West Bromwich to be as January prepares to give way to February.

Blackburn have not changed much from the days when Allardyce watched from the dug‑out rather than from behind glass. Morten Gamst Pedersen (born Vadso, Norway) still threatened with long throws, one of which almost created a breakthrough for Chris Samba (born Créteil, France), while Roque Santa Cruz (born Asunción, Paraguay) forced a full-length save from Myhill.

And yet, West Bromwich had begun brightly with Peter Odemwingie (born Tashkent, Uzbekistan) creating a chance after 30 seconds while Jerome Thomas (born Wembley, England) broke consistently down the Blackburn right and twice left Salgado (born As Neves, Spain) on his backside. Even as their season has turned dark they have not sacrificed their commitment to passing football established several seasons ago under Tony Mowbray and embedded under Di Matteo.

And, as happened to them in the narrow and undeserved defeat against Manchester United, they were denied a blatant penalty when Jermaine Jones (born Frankfurt, Germany) on his debut brought down Odemwingie. The referee, Mark Clattenburg, noted the foul but not that it was clearly inside the area.

West Bromwich had played well, they had been tainted by ill-luck and now thoughts are turning towards the prospect of relegation. Somehow those travelling from the Black Country to Blackburn might feel they have been here before.